Psalms 115 and 135 Bible Teaching

The Concept of God in Psalms

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Psalm 115 AND 135 August 3rd 2025 Insensate verses living Gods YAHAVAH – We have sincere belief that this is His proper noun name – at least the facts surrounding it add up much better than the previous terms used.

Understanding YAHAVAH

Who is He? When did He appear on the scene of human history and how? What makes Him different than every other god that had existed or came into existence and why do we accept this God named YAHAVAH compared to any other God offered? Our two Psalms today go a long way to explain the Nations God called YAHAVAH. His name in the text is used 33 times and He is described in comparison to what the writer was depicting as idols. Besides His name, we will discover more in the comparison about this God all as a means to help us decide if we want to worship this particular God introduced to the children of Abraham (namely Isaac and Ishmael) and why.

The reality is, there are a LOT of gods that have showed up in human history and many of them as ardently revered as YAHAVAH – so why would we choose Him? In a crude comparison we might say its like all Christians decided that vanilla ice cream is their ice cream and eat only it leaving the rest of the world to eat all the other flavors while we claim ours is best – but is that a tad bit shallow? Don’t we have other reasons for pursuing and finding out about this God and choosing to worship Him and Him alone.

Let’s read through the two chapters and then talk about this God named YAHAVAH and the reason we elect to worship Him and Him alone.

Comparing YAHAVAH to Idols

Psalm 115:1 Not unto us, O YAHAVAH, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. 2 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? 3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

So first of all, we can see that according to the Psalmist, our God is located in a distinct place – heavens – and our God has no boss or God over Him – He does as He pleases. At this point the Psalmist compares the other gods of the heathens, as they are called, and says, 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

Automatically, the heathens make or create their gods (known as idols) out of material things – gold and silver – and are given immediate value in that way. Then they are created by someone – and are made anthropomorphically -with eyes and ears and noses and hands and feet but they are insensate – and being made by a creation reflect the creation that made its imagination – but have no ability to sense anything.

And after stating this, which by comparison is to say that YAHAVAH sees, hears, smells, lifts, walks and speaks, presenting us with some confusing ideas about Him which often leads to our anthropomorphizing Him in reverse, the writer returns to describing YAHAVAH and says, 9 O Israel, trust thou in YAHAVAH: he is their help and their shield. 10 O house of Aaron, trust in YAHAVAH: he is their help and their shield. 11 Ye that fear YAHAVAH, trust in YAHAVAH: he is their help and their shield.

Repeated three times. An insensate God cannot help nor defend. It sits there and does nothing and only by circumstance and magical thinking can defense and help be attributed to it, right? The thinking here is our God who is not insensate, actually does hear and see and respond and it is not imaginary but actual – but the question becomes, can anyone prove a difference in outcome? In other words, if someone prays to a little god of brass on their table for say, healing, and we pray to YAHAVAH for healing, and both parties are healed, how can we tell which God acted? The writer is suggesting that we look at the attributes of the respective God to logically come to a conclusion meaning, because we (albeit paradoxically) believe in an invisible spirit-God of

The Nature of YAHAVAH

Consuming fire who can materially heal and defend us, we also agree that He is living – that is how we distinguish our reason – YAHAVAH is living – and while described directly as “not a man,” and Spirit and uncreated, we trust and believe that He is able and capable of having command over all things and knows all things by being consummately sensate.

Can we prove it? Not at all. But one of the things that undergirds the monotheistic religions that came from Abraham is we all believe in a living, sensate uncreated immaterial God not bound or governed by anything above or before Him while the logical constructs of all other God’s fall short by comparison.

Verse 12

12 YAHAVAH hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. 13 He will bless them that fear YAHAVAH, both small and great. 14 YAHAVAH shall increase you more and more, you and your children. 15 Ye are blessed of YAHAVAH which made heaven and earth.

Because YAHAVAH is the Creator of all things, and at the top and origin of them, He is able to bless creation with increase. Verse 12 says that “He has a mind and is mindful of us,” and all of this information brings us to seeing Him more along the lines of being one of us rather than of any other created origin or imagination. Here comes the tricky part which makes our understanding of the living God problematic – because we humans alone by the way are made in His image, some of us tend to reverse engineer Him and see Him as one of us. It’s sort of understandable when we read that he has eyes that see and ears that hear and hands that lift and feet that walk and a mind that thinks – that is one of us, right?

And when we go down this road we tend to ignore all the other facets of Him that scripture includes about Him like the fact that He is uncreated, eternal, Spirit, a consuming fire, the top of the heap of all things, the first and the last, creates material things by speaking them into existence. By reverse engineering Him, the LDS have made Him one of them and them in training to be Him. Again, a reasonable thought, convenient even, to the demands of our limited logic. The trouble with the approach is it engenders all sorts of proud ideas and attitudes from the created and strips from us the reverence and worship and understanding of who and what He genuinely is.

Humanity’s Pride and God’s Sovereignty

Because we have been made in His image, and because He has given us traits and attributes akin to His – including the power to subdue and govern and think and choose, there is a natural inclination to see ourselves as just a little lower than Him and the brass tacks reality, smoldering out of the heart and minds of men since the beginning – is pride. The Psalmist touches on the support for this systemic pride in humanity when he adds,

16 The heaven, even the heavens, are YAHAVAH’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

And so we face another tempting reality to give us arrogance and that is God has made us gods over what is beneath our feet. Lords over our bodies, our lives, our property, our society. Herein lies yet another facet of our make-up, power and God-given rights that often serves to erase what humility should exist between the likes of Him and the likes of us and the utter awe and respect for the Living God every created human being ought to retain. But we don’t. What we have actually done is made an idol out of Him, sitting there on the table of our minds and like a genie rising up and meeting our demands because we know best, we have rights, and He is at best, one of us.

If I could impart any wisdom on those souls who see God anthropomorphically, and as them being in line to become Him, it would be to take a deep breath and realize that the human ability to become an adopted child of God is only in and through the Spirit of His Son. That only His Son is his child in flesh – we are adopted as His children in Spirit and that the promises made for any sort of deification of ourselves is

The Incomprehensibility of YAHAVAH

In the form of a son or daughter once human, not YAHAVAH as an equal. The fact of the matter is, my friends, the incomprehensibility of the one True God with the personal pronoun name of YAHAVAH is so utterly beyond the range of our puny human comprehension, power and will that our ONLY response to Him, if He is seen and clearly known, is shattered broken humility and contrition and the desperate pleas for acceptance in the name of faith in His Son. Outside of this established means alone, my friends, a created human has zero access to the one true and living YAHAVAH.

The Psalmist adds to wrap up the chapter:

17 The dead praise not YAHAVAH, neither any that go down into silence. 18 But we will bless YAHAVAH from this time forth and for evermore. Praise YAHAVAH. This passage suggests that those in that day who died were dormant, even asleep and if you pass without knowing your God you will die in silence. There could be something to that in terms of the Old Testament reality of the afterlife and soul-sleep but I remain wholly unconvinced of it.

The God of the Living

What does it mean, however, when Yeshua said to the Sadducees who denied the resurrection in Matthew 22? They confronted him and He said,

Matthew 22:31-33 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

The Sadducees denied the resurrection and only accepted the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Old Testament—as inspired texts. But here, Yeshua tackled their misconception on the resurrection by citing Exodus 3:6 which was a statement God made long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died but because God said it in the present tense the indication is that they were still alive. In other words, God did not say that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but that He still is their God directly implying that they still exist.

Resurrection and Eternal Life

Herein lies at one of the most significant differences between all the other God’s in existence and YAHAVAH – He is a God of the Living and not the dead – meaning, He is a God that brings all things to life – even those things that were formerly dead. This God is able to do this compared to other God’s because He is living and has always lived – there has never been a time when our God was not living, not God, unalive. The gods from all other realms, spiritual and material do not lay claim to any of these attributes and none of them claim power to take what was once dead, polluted, corrupt and to give it life. Only the Living God of the Living has that capacity.

Interestingly, and despite Jesus’ resurrection, the Sadducees’ ideology persisted long after He ascended and it was addressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:22–23 when he wrote “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” So the resurrection of the dead in Christ is certain, further reaffirming Jesus’ proclamation that “God is not the God of the dead.” But what about those that did not believe or follow Christ? Is God their God too?

Yeshua clears that up in John 5:28–29 where He said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to life, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” The idols on the tables and walls and hearts of the world who do not receive or know the true and living God make no promise and have no power to give or restore life. They are insensate. God is sensate, He is living and when we choose to follow Him we enter into the biggest added value of our God over all others – a person can only become as elevated in life as the God they pursue. If Johnny Rotten is your idol you can only ascend to the level of skill and ability as Johnny Rotten. If your God is created from tin, you will ultimately…

The Importance of Praising YAHAVAH

YAHAVAH explains throughout the sacred text of old exactly why He ought to be the one and only supreme God in a human being’s life and the error of assuming there is value in bringing in or valuing any other. Of course, the idols of antiquity and the idolatry of modernity can be subtly different as our idols today are often captured in concepts like wealth, fame, appearance, fitness, fortune, self – but whether a little tin God, or a concept, the choice of what is almighty in our lives plays a huge role in what we actually become in our adoration of such. In chapter 135, the Psalmist revisits some of the same themes found in Psalm 115 – let’s read through it now.

Praise YAHAVAH

Psalm 135:1 Praise ye YAHAVAH. Praise ye the name of YAHAVAH; praise him, O ye servants of YAHAVAH. 2 Ye that stand in the house of YAHAVAH, in the courts of the house of our God, 3 Praise YAHAVAH; for YAHAVAH is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant. 4 For . . . YAHAVAH hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. Here we have the Psalmist open with calls to praise YAHAVAH.

The word praise in Hebrew is Halal and it means boast in. Honor. Glory about. In Greek it’s ep-ahee-nos and it means to laud – which is basically the same thing. Why does the scripture repeatedly endorse our praising YAHAVAH? I once had a brother say to me in the face of my conversion to Christ, “God is not a narcissist. He does not need our praise and adoration.” But the Psalmist here, along with numerous other passages seems to disagree with this sentiment. What is the basis for praising YAHAVAH from His end?

The Natural Desire to Praise

Since God is completely self-sufficient, the top of all things and utterly self-existent why does He need our praise and adoration. The fact of the matter is, philosophically He really doesn’t. In fact, nowhere in scripture does God say, “worship me, praise me, honor me” – nowhere. The only place where a being actually says, worship me, was Satan in the wilderness. So, the directive from the Psalmist is a human directive, a very natural one. See, we love to praise people, events and things in life, don’t we?

I usually don’t quote many men but these words of CS Lewis speak volumes about the human tendency to praise what we admire when he says, “I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise…. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game…. I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’ The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.”

So, the first point in what should be a natural desire to praise YAHAVAH is . . . ready . . . He deserves it. IF a painter deserves it, someone who cleans our bathroom, someone who throws a grand party, then from the heart the Psalmist is prescribing what those who know, love and really understand YAHAVAH should almost naturally do – praise Him – almost as if to say, it’s only natural. When I was LDS, there was no natural praising of God from my mouth. Not as a devoted missionary, not as a Bishopric member or a seminary teacher. It was not natural to me and I actually mocked the idea and practice. When I came to really understand Him and know Him, my mouth could not help but praise Him, though everyone around me would rather hear me sing the praises of other men, or their…

The Nature of Praise

The Psalmist seems to be encouraging what those who know Him naturally do – they praise Him and they Praise His name because they can see that He deserves it – of everything that we could spend time and energy on praising, it’s Him. But to the unknowing of Him heart, the praise is naturally given to everything and everyone else BUT Him. Another reason from our end and again not so much from His, is we praise Him, and again, naturally and from the heart because it expresses OUR hearts to wanting to give credit where credit is due.

Genuine Praise

This cannot be forced and can only occur when our hearts are truly grateful and aware of who He is and what He has done. Because He knows and judges our hearts, He knows if our praise is heartfelt and without feigning. He knows if and when we praise Him if it is to be seen and heard by others or if it is direct unencumbered praise directly from our heart of hearts to Him. This is real praise, real worship, true adoration. We do it naturally, from the heart, because He alone deserves it, and because we ARE so grateful for His hand in our lives.

Our ego, flesh, will and ways are often a governor on our praise because when the need and desire to praise him from the heart comes, our exterior fears looking out of sorts with the rest of the world or in cahoots with a subset of people full of misunderstood zeal. That can be embarrassing to our person right? So, praising Him is like a fearless, shameless plug that our God not only deserves, but that shows our devotional hearts to Him without shame or compulsion. It comes from our heart and minds, to Him without demand and seem to show or evidence the utter love and commitment we have for Him in spite of embarrassment, shame or fear of men.

Example of King David

King David, a man after God’s own heart, and rejoicing in the return of the ark to Israel, shamelessly worshipped YAHAVAH in the face of this great blessing and we read about this in 2nd Samuel 6:14-23 where we read:

And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts. And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine. So all the people departed every one to his house. Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! And David said unto Michal, It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD. And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God..

Finally, it appears that YAHAVAH (who seems to have created us for His pleasure just like we create things for our pleasure and the pleasure of others) acknowledging His goodness, love, perfection, and all the incredible things He has done for us—seems.

The Significance of Praise in a Relationship with God

When my daughters praise me, for instance, I do not demand it nor do I gain or grow in my estimation of myself (I know myself) but it shows me where they are in their hearts and how they perceive my acts and therefore my intentions as my child. I am warmed and encouraged when their praise is for the Good that I do, and it shows them giving me the benefit of the doubt in the face of their fears and in the things about me that trouble them. Long story short, the natural heartfelt praise of my children is not for me or my ego, it tells me about them, their views and their hearts. As a couple seeking God, you can then imagine the utter joy Mary and I feel when we hear our children freely and openly giving the God whom we love and adore praise from their hearts and how disturbing it would be to hear them praising because of a cultural demand or rote habit.

Honest and Open Praise

But to the point of praising God honestly and openly and fearlessly, we have to admit that the existence of such illustrates a worked out relationship with Him from the mouths that the praises flow. In other words, when our children won’t sing our praises for obvious aid help or hospitality, or refrain from being verbally grateful, thankful or appreciative for sacrifices, and even get to the point where there is zero expressions to reflect such things in the relationship, we know that our relationship is strained, that the missing words are not reflective of love and peace that should exist and the absence of such is not because our ego needs it, but because they are obviously in some sort of pain toward us. So, praise and worship is an indicator of our hearts toward our God – which directly shows us where we are in our thoughts toward Him.

Bottom line – we praise Him because we know Him, are grateful to Him, love Him, are grateful to Him and like in any relationship, want Him to know our hearts for the things He brings to the world and our lives. If you have an issue with praising Him publicly that is fine. You may be a private person. But do yourself a favor and make sure that you also have a hard time praising anyone or anything else publicly – if you don’t, and you can readily rejoice over a film or dinner or vacation spot you might want to investigate your heart and inventory what it really thinks.

The Psalmist’s Praise

The Psalmist continues at verse 5 and in praise rehearses all that YAHAVAH had done for Israel anciently and says:

5 For I know that YAHAVAH is great, and that our YAHAVAH is above all gods.
6 Whatsoever YAHAVAH pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
7 He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.
8 Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast.
9 Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants.
10 Who smote great nations, and slew mighty kings;
11 Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan:
12 And gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people.
13 Thy name, O YAHAVAH, endureth for ever; and thy memorial, O YAHAVAH, throughout all generations.
14 For YAHAVAH will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants.

Where the Hebrew writer took the time to extol the blessing YAHAVAH had given them, we are all in a similar position to verbalize what YAHAVAH has done for us – a practice of thanksgiving not reserved for November holidays but everyday as led.

Then the Psalmist goes back and speaks about the false God’s and says:

15 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
16 They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;
17 They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths.
18 They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.

Which is another obvious reason to make sure that if you are gonna pursue the worship of a deity or

Trust in God

God that you put your trust in one that can heal you, lift you, teach you, and improve you by lifting you up to attributes it possesses – for me, that is only a God that has no other power above Him, no beginning from the hands of others, unlimited in capacity, wisdom and knowledge, sensate, and the creator of all things, not just a manager, not just a by-product of Man. The Psalmist concludes with another interesting recommendation to consider and says,

19 Bless YAHAVAH, O house of Israel: bless YAHAVAH, O house of Aaron: 20 Bless YAHAVAH, O house of Levi: ye that fear YAHAVAH, bless YAHAVAH. 21 Blessed be YAHAVAH out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye YAHAVAH. The idea of our blessing our Living God can seem sort of stupid, right? Like, what could we possibly say or do or be that would bless Him?

Blessing God

But the scripture is not silent on the idea. Psalm 103 read Psalm 103:1 Bless YAHAVAH, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless YAHAVAH, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. The concluding question then becomes, how does a created being bless who created them? Out the gate, we are free to bless Him through our praise and worship from the heart – which is what we have been talking about and what many of the Psalms (because they are songs) speak to. But the notion goes much deeper and the best way to approach it seems to be to ask, What makes God pleased and not ashamed to be called our God.

Pleasing God

Is that a thing? The writer of Hebrews mentions the idea when he wrote, speaking of the faithful Jews anciently, Hebrews 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. The simple answer seems to be to first understand His desires for us and to do them. In other words, the best way to bless our God is to do His will in our lives and this is not a matter of material expression (meaning talents and occupation and even time – something many believers have to realize) but frankly what we do, say and believe from the heart. And without rehearsing the biblical evidences, we know that this means having, keeping, developing a heart of faith and love – from the heart – for Him and then for others as Christ.

I want to wrap today up by doing something that is wholly out of my character but I have done it through other expressions in the past. Ever since coming to understand the better name for God, I started to yearn to praise Him. More than a year ago I started singing privately a personal song to Him. And I want to boldly, unashamedly share it with you from my heart today in closing. It is a public open un-demanded offering from my heart to Him before you all to accord with the teaching today. We will go to questions and comments thereafter. It’s short.

SING

Question/Comments PRAYER